Sommerville of Aughnavallog

Regarding the record of William’s departure for Nova Scotia c 1830, in my experience there are few passenger records for journeys to Canada prior to 1850. There was no requirement to compile them. A few shipping agents records have survived but that’s about it.  What there is, is mostly on the Mellon site:

http://www.qub.ac.uk/cms/

Tracing Wm S & Jane King’s antecedents will be tricky. There are no church records for that area prior to 1819. So neither William’s baptism nor his parents marriage is likely to be in any surviving records.

I note that the Rev Sommerville was a Covenanter Minister. So possibly his parents were also Covenanters. There is mention of Covenanter meeting in the Aughnavallog area c1770 on the Rosdavies site.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Erosdavies/PLACENAMES/A.htm

The Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) in Ireland don’t really have any records for the 1700s. The first ever RP Minister in Ireland was the Rev William Martin who was ordained in Ireland in 1757. His “presbytery” was all of Counties Down, Antrim, Londonderry & Donegal. He lived near Kellswater in Co Antrim but preached all over Ulster. Initially, he had no church and preached in barns or the open air. He kept no records in Ireland (or none that have survived anyway). The first RP church was built at Kellswater. A second Minister, Matthew Lynn, was ordained in 1763 and took over the Bannside part of Rev Martin’s presbytery (ie Cos Derry, Tyrone & Donegal). By 1772 4 more Ministers had been ordained. A grand total of 6.

However by 1779 the presbytery collapsed because 2 Ministers had emigrated to the USA and 2 others had died. It was re-established in 1792 with 6 Ministers. There were still only a handful of churches: Kellswater, Letterkenny, Conlig, Dervock & Kilraughts being ones that I know of. Around 1793 the Ministers for Kilraughts and Kellswater both had to go into exile for preaching treasonous sermons. Back to 4 Ministers, all covering huge geographic areas.

So the picture that emerges for the 1700s, is one of an embryonic organization, with few church buildings, a handful of Ministers (some of whom died or left at short notice), and even fewer records.

In short, if your ancestors were Reformed Presbyterians who lived in Ireland in the 1700s, I don’t think there are any church records you can usefully access.

I had a look in the Rev Hutchinson’s history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (1893) and there’s no mention of Rev Wm Sommerville serving in Scotland, so if he was a Covenanter Minister by the time he arrived in Canada, he may have been ordained in Ireland. You might want to contact their historical society to see if they have any information on him:

http://rpc.org

I have no firm idea, unfortunately, whether Rev WS left from Scotland or from Ireland for Canada.  There is a biography online, which I should review to see if there are more clues.  I do seem to think he left from Ireland.

Something tells me that WS Sr was a Reformed Presbyterian minister, but I'm not sure of that, either.  

Thank you for these leads.  I will take a look.

The references to Covenanter activity in the townland in 1770 may refer to your family. Definitely worth checking the source of that information as well as with the RP Church HQ in Ireland. All branches of the Presbyterian church maintain records of their Ministers in a book called FASTI. It normally records some family information as well as details of where they were ordained and where they served, and when they died. Ask them to check for any Sommervilles and see what they find. But I do know there were very few permanent Covenanter ministers in Ireland prior to 1800. Less than a dozen. These were supplemented by itinerant Ministers from Scotland who would conduct occasional services (and marriages). Unfortunately they didn't leave any baptism or marriage registers behind!

I had great fortune contacting the RPC with the link you gave.  I was actually contacted by someone researching a colleague of my ggggrandfather.  I purchased the book Covenenters in Canada by Eldon Hay.  It has been a great resource so far.

I do have another question.  Are there any sources of information that are not directly church related?  I ask because it seems the parents of my ggggrandfather, William Sommerville, were very well known in the community and were well-remembered.  It seems to me that they may have made it into some other public record from the area.

Where else might I look for such a public record?  I suspect it would all be in Rathfriland now.  I've tried to google the history but am not getting very far.

Thank you!

Probably the most detailed description of the parish of Drumballyroney for the early 1830s would be the Ordnance Survey memoirs. They were republished by the Ulster Historical Foundation a few years ago. Each parish has about 30 or 40 pages of detailed descriptions of the landscape, occupations, economy, pastimes, churches, persons of note etc. If you can’t get a copy from the UHF, PRONI has a copy and I could get them to photocopy it for you, if you want (they charge 30p a page).

Ah!  Good lead, thank you!  Is it possible for you to tell me which volume Drumballyroney is in?  I've tried to find it and so far am having no luck as there are several volumes covering County Down.  I may be able to find the book through my library or geneological group here.

I don't know which volume it is. I would need to look next time I am in PRONI. (Generally there's about 4 or 5 parishes in each volume). Or you could contact the UHF who published them a few years back and ask them: http://www.ancestryireland.com

Thank you!  I suspect it's Vol 3.  I"m going to talk to my friendly librarian and see if she can get it for me.  I do appreciate your help!